Systems and methods for a de-identified medical and healthcare data marketplace

Inventors

Rosenberg, Michael • BENITZ, MALCOLM • SUTTLES, JASON • WOODLIEF, CHRIS • GOLDSTEIN, BRENT

Assignees

Medicom Technologies Inc

Abstract

The invention relates generally to systems and methods for protecting patient privacy when health care information is shared between various entities and, in particular, to systems and methods that implement a multi-stage sanitizing routine for de-identifying patient data from medical reports and diagnostic images to ensure patient privacy, while preserving the ability for sanitized medical reports and diagnostic images to be re-identified.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to a de-identified medical data marketplace for medical reports and diagnostic images (DICOM) supported by a multi-stage sanitizing routine. The marketplace includes a database storing a plurality of de-identified medical data sets, wherein each de-identified medical data set is owned by a different data owner, and a server coupled to the database. Customers submit a search request through an interface, where the request includes at least one criteria selected from a defined group such as a modality type, an equipment manufacturer, a body part, a study description, a protocol name, a requested procedure description, a scheduled procedure step description, and a keyword.

The system queries the database using the received criteria to retrieve at least one matching de-identified medical data set, and displays the at least one matching medical data set on the interface. The marketplace facilitates a financial transaction related to the at least one matching medical data set between the respective data owner and the customer, and in the described embodiment the financial transaction is stored on a blockchain communicatively coupled to the server. Auction-based sale is offered for diagnostic image sets via the interface.

The de-identification process is described as modality-driven by retrieving a medical image from a medical data set, determining a modality associated with the medical image, and retrieving a de-identification profile for the modality that specifies at least one area of the medical image that contains patient information. A sanitizing engine coupled to the server applies a blackout zone over the specified area, wherein patient information within the blackout zone is deleted by the sanitizing engine. Additional described aspects include using OCR to verify absence of remaining characters and re-encapsulating the sanitized output as a DICOM form.

The marketplace also includes re-identification concepts using a retrieval of a unique identifier, including an SOP instance UID, and stored private/hashed keys to determine re-identification eligibility. Search criteria used by the marketplace can include study date or study date range, and geographic criteria or demographic criteria, and the marketplace supports business flow concepts such as listing/membership fees, commissions/proceeds sharing, purchase in bulk or random lots, and blockchain-based privacy/security using encrypted direct peer-to-peer channels.

Claims Coverage

The provided independent claims cover three related but distinct systems for a medical data marketplace: a marketplace system storing de-identified medical data sets with blockchain-stored transactions, a marketplace system specifically for de-identified diagnostic image sets with auction-based sale, and a marketplace system that supports bulk requests and random selection combined with modality-profile blackout-zone de-identification.

Across the independent claims, the marketplace is grounded by de-identified medical data sets/images, searchable through an interface using selectable criteria, and monetized through financial transactions that can be blockchain-stored and can be auction-based for diagnostic image sets. The bulk/random-lot variant ties de-identification to modality-associated de-identification profiles and blackout zones applied by a sanitizing engine over patient-information areas.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications